Walking past Robinson Hall in a gray trenchcoat and a new green Dartmouth baseball cap, the College's new official photographer, Joseph Mehling '69, zoomed into the horizon by bracketing the cloudy afternoon sky between Baker Library and Dartmouth Hall with a sweeping gesture of his hand.
"If you look at those buildings and the sky -- there's the other dimension of people walking across -- that's the kind of thing that I'm interested in," Mehling said as he lifted a cigarette to his mouth.
Mehling started his job as the College's photographer on Nov. 1 after Stuart Bratesman '75, the College's photographer since 1985, left in August to study public policy at Duke University.
The College's News Service, Dartmouth Life magazine and Dartmouth Alumni Magazine combined their budgets to hire Mehling in October.
"We were hoping to get a photographer to capture Dartmouth during the '90s," said Theresa D'Orsi, editor of Dartmouth Life.
"He did a series of black and white profiles for Upper Valley magazines and the work he did for them is similar to what I'll be asking him to do for Dartmouth Life," D'Orsi said.
Mehling's appointment as a photographer is one in a list of varied careers, such as carpentry and poetry.
Nine years ago, Mehling said he realized he could pursue his love for photography professionally.
"Everyone I knew tried to talk me out of it," he said. "Then I became a full time freelance photographer in 1985."
Since then, Mehling has primarily been a commercial photographer. His photographs have been published in magazines such as Historic Preservation, Horticulture and Vermont.
Mehling said he also took photographs for the book "Living with Flowers" written by J. Barry Ferguson and Tom Cowan. He said the book was his biggest project so far.
Born in Baltimore in 1947, Mehling began taking pictures at age 10, when his father gave him an antique Kodak Retina camera that he had used during the war, he said.
"I didn't like normal family snapshots, so I began to photograph the patterns of ivy on a wall or the shadows cast by stones on a beach," he said.
Mehling described himself as having been a "bit of a peacenik" as a student at Dartmouth.
He said that during his years in Hanover he spent much of his time hanging out at the Hopkins Center and taking pictures as a hobby.
"When I was here, there was always that side of life that nobody wanted published, you know, the frats and sororities," Mehling said. "I was interested in capturing a bit of the underlife of Dartmouth society."
Mehling currently lives with his wife and three-year-old daughter in Norwich, Vt.
Other projects Mehling said he is considering are a group picture of all the campus dogs he can get together, and pictures of the faculty and students in classroom situations.
"At different times I've been interested in different things," Mehling said. "I have been most interested in doing black and white portraits of people. I've also done a series of architectural work. At the College, I'll be able to do both."